U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue names Anne Hazlett, aide on Senate Agriculture Committee, to lead rural development agencies at the department including Rural Utilities Service as assistant to the secretary for rural development ... Broadcast Music Inc. promotes to executive vice presidents Alison Smith for distribution, publisher relations and administration services, and Mike Steinberg, creative and licensing ... At 21st Century Fox, Ed Davis moves to chief product officer, Fox Networks Group Advertising Sales, new position overseeing FNG IP-delivered ad products and services.
New York City’s Next-Generation 911 project will have positive impact for the rest of the country, but more funding is needed, the National Emergency Number Association said Wednesday. The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications released a request for proposals seeking vendors to build the infrastructure supporting the IP-based 911 system, DoITT said in a Tuesday news release. Proposals are due Aug. 8, with work slated to start in December and NG-911 expected to launch in Q1 2022, DoITT said. While NG-911 is in development, the city plans to launch a text-to-911 service by Q1 2018, it said. “New York’s insistence on testing, validation, and standards will have benefits far beyond our largest city,” NENA said in a statement. “To bring NG9-1-1 to the entire country, however, we need a significant injection of federal capital, and soon. Otherwise, many 9-1-1 centers and the responders and citizens they serve could be stuck with expensive, less-reliable legacy equipment and systems for years to come.” New York City officials applauded the project. “Our number one priority is keeping New Yorkers safe, and developing the strongest, most state-of-the-art 911 system is essential to that mission,” said First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris. “In the 21st century, that means ensuring that New Yorkers who need to communicate with 911 can do more than make a phone call -- we want to give them the ability to send photos, stream video, and more.” NG-911 will make it easier for the city to make further 911 upgrades in the future, added DoITT Commissioner Anne Roest.
New York City’s Next-Generation 911 project will have positive impact for the rest of the country, but more funding is needed, the National Emergency Number Association said Wednesday. The city’s Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications released a request for proposals seeking vendors to build the infrastructure supporting the IP-based 911 system, DoITT said in a Tuesday news release. Proposals are due Aug. 8, with work slated to start in December and NG-911 expected to launch in Q1 2022, DoITT said. While NG-911 is in development, the city plans to launch a text-to-911 service by Q1 2018, it said. “New York’s insistence on testing, validation, and standards will have benefits far beyond our largest city,” NENA said in a statement. “To bring NG9-1-1 to the entire country, however, we need a significant injection of federal capital, and soon. Otherwise, many 9-1-1 centers and the responders and citizens they serve could be stuck with expensive, less-reliable legacy equipment and systems for years to come.” New York City officials applauded the project. “Our number one priority is keeping New Yorkers safe, and developing the strongest, most state-of-the-art 911 system is essential to that mission,” said First Deputy Mayor Anthony Shorris. “In the 21st century, that means ensuring that New Yorkers who need to communicate with 911 can do more than make a phone call -- we want to give them the ability to send photos, stream video, and more.” NG-911 will make it easier for the city to make further 911 upgrades in the future, added DoITT Commissioner Anne Roest.
Sinclair’s proposed buy of Tribune Media would put too many U.S. homes within reach of not enough voices, media consolidation opponents, union officials, academics and MVPD officials told us. After the $3.9 billion deal, the resulting company would reach 69.4 percent of U.S. homes. “I’m not sure it’s a great thing for the American consumer,” said DePauw University media professor Jeffrey McCall. Though some broadcast-side proponents of the deal said it’s necessary for Sinclair to grow to compete in the modern media market, analysts and broadcast officials said the transaction is intended to increase Sinclair’s reach and enhance the viability of the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard.
Sinclair’s proposed buy of Tribune Media would put too many U.S. homes within reach of not enough voices, media consolidation opponents, union officials, academics and MVPD officials told us. After the $3.9 billion deal, the resulting company would reach 69.4 percent of U.S. homes. “I’m not sure it’s a great thing for the American consumer,” said DePauw University media professor Jeffrey McCall. Though some broadcast-side proponents of the deal said it’s necessary for Sinclair to grow to compete in the modern media market, analysts and broadcast officials said the transaction is intended to increase Sinclair’s reach and enhance the viability of the new ATSC 3.0 broadcast standard.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit has rejected public interest groups’ request for an emergency stay of the FCC’s restoration of the UHF discount, and ended the administrative stay of the rule. “Petitioners have not satisfied the stringent requirements for a stay pending review,” said the order, issued Thursday. “This is not very surprising, since stays are rarely granted. However, it is extremely disappointing,” said Georgetown Law Institute for Public Representation Senior Counselor Andrew Schwartzman, who represented Free Press, Prometheus Radio Project, the National Hispanic Media Coalition, Prometheus Radio Project and the other groups in the case. Since the restored discount’s effective date of June 5 passed during the administrative stay, the rule is effective immediately, an FCC spokesman told us. “We are pleased by the court's decision,” the spokesman said. The case will continue on the merits, attorneys told us.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai advances Lisa Fowlkes (see 1706130059) to chief-Public Safety Bureau, where she was acting chief ... Wilkinson Barker hires Anne Swanson, ex-Cooley, as partner; she has worked on drone, tech and communications issues ... NAB hires Josh Pollack, ex-White House aide under President Barack Obama, as vice president-government relations, effective July 10 ... With Verizon completing (see 1706130048) purchase of the operating business of Yahoo, the assets are combined with its existing AOL business to create a new subsidiary, Oath; ex-AOL CEO Tim Armstrong is CEO of Oath, which is part of Verizon's Media and Telematics organization; Marni Walden is Verizon president-media and telematics; Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer resigns from Yahoo.
Univision Communications adds Lan Nguyen, ex-assistant U.S. attorney-Eastern District of New York, as senior vice president-associate general counsel/head-litigation ... Fox News Channel names programming leadership team via promotions: Meade Cooper as senior vice president-programming; John Finley is senior vice president-development and production; Ron Mitchell to vice president-story development, prime-time programming; Lauren Petterson becomes senior vice president-morning programming and talent development; Amy Sohnen named vice president-talent development; and Jill Van Why to vice president-programming operations.
General Electric moves up John Flannery to CEO, effective Aug. 1, and succeeding Jeff Immelt as chairman when he retires from the company on Dec. 31; Chief Financial Officer Jeff Bornstein promoted to vice chair ... Senet, provider of IoT low-power, wide-area networks, hires telecom executive Bruce Chatterley as CEO-president and elects him to the board, succeeding CEO-President George Dannecker, retiring ... Pivot Technology Solutions appoints David Toews, ex-Nightingale Informatix, interim chief financial officer, succeeding Brian Kyle.
This iteration of the Communications Security, Reliability and Interoperability Council meets for the first time June 23, with Brian King, T-Mobile senior vice president-national technology service delivery and operations, at the helm, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said Monday. Pai indicated in April that CSRIC was rechartered, though with less focus than it had in the past on cybersecurity (see 1704100059). The three working groups are: Transition Path to NG911, with Mary Boyd of West Safety Services as chair; Comprehensive Re-imagining of Emergency Alerting -- chaired by Farrokh Khatibi of Qualcomm; Network Reliability and Security Risk Reduction, chaired by Travis Russell of Oracle. “The CSRIC’s first meeting will introduce members of the Committee, set out initial assignments, and provide more information about the working groups,” said a public notice. The meeting starts at 1 p.m. in the Commission Meeting Room. A full list of members is in the notice (and see the personals section of this issue of this publication).